Briantspuddle crowned the Best Small Village in Dorset

Briantspuddle, a quaint countryside village boasting beautiful Arts and Crafts houses and an interesting history has been crowned the 2018 winner of the Dorset Best Village Awards.

Briantspuddle sits in the stunning Piddle Valley Conservation Area, eight miles from Dorchester. First mentioned in the Doomsday Book in 1086 as 'Pidele', the hamlet of 12 houses became part of visionary businessman Ernest Debenham's Bladen Estate just before the First World War. His grandfather was William Debenham, the founder of Debenhams department stores.

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Ernest believed Britain could be entirely self-sufficient if new scientific and technological methods were applied to farming. He had built 40 new Arts and Crafts cottages by 1929 to attract rural workers to come to his growing agricultural empire. Each cottage had an indoor bathroom, pumped water, electric lighting, a garden and a pig pen to encourage self-sufficiency.

At the estate's peak, Bladen stretched 10,000 acres across the Piddle Valley and employed 600 workers. The estate was disbanded when Ernest died in 1952.

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